But posted salaries rarer in white collar jobs, finds Indeed
Pay transparency in job postings in Canada has become far more common compared to five years ago.
Nearly half (49 per cent) of Canadian job postings on Indeed in February 2024 featured pay information, up from 22 per cent in early 2019, according to an Indeed report.
“Among postings that included pay information last month, almost three-quarters offered wages in hourly terms, slightly less than one in four advertised annual salaries, and far smaller shares quoted pay in monthly, weekly, or daily frequencies,” says the report.
Eighty per cent of Canadian managers are now including salary ranges in want ads, according to a previous Robert Half report.
Why is pay transparency far less common among white collar jobs?
Posted salaries are most common among the following sectors, according to Indeed:
|
Sector |
Percentage of job postings with pay information |
|---|---|
|
Sports |
71 per cent |
|
Community and Social service |
65 per cent |
|
Personal Care & Home Health |
65 per cent |
|
Security & Public Safety |
64 per cent |
|
Medical Information |
64 per cent |
|
Nursing |
64 per cent |
|
Therapy |
64 per cent |
|
Cleaning & Sanitation |
63 per cent |
|
Education & Instruction |
63 per cent |
|
Driving |
63 per cent |
However, posting pay information on job ads is rarer among white collar jobs, according to Indeed:
|
Sector |
Percentage of job postings with pay information |
|---|---|
|
Banking & Finance |
21 per cent |
|
Software Development |
25 per cent |
|
Civil Engineering |
26 per cent |
|
Industrial Engineering |
26 per cent |
|
Electrical Engineering |
28 per cent |
|
Information Design & Documentation |
29 per cent |
|
Mechanical Engineering |
30 per cent |
|
Retail |
33 per cent |
|
Project Management |
33 per cent |
|
Insurance |
33 per cent |
The best predictor of posted salary prevalence was related to the type of pay – hourly vs. annual – employers usually offered, notes Indeed.
“Transparency was generally lowest among occupations where annual pay was more common. The share of postings in February 2024 mentioning pay was lower than the economy-wide average in 11 of the 12 occupations in which annual salaries made up a majority of posted wages (real estate the lone exception).
“Conversely, none of the 10 sectors with the highest rates of transparency quoted more than 20% of their wages and salaries in annual terms. Employers might be more wary of posting pay in annual, rather than hourly terms, as the latter still provides some flexibility in determining overall labour costs.”
Ontario and British Columbia have introduced pay transparency legislation in their own jurisdictions. Meanwhile, Starbucks has also started implementing salary transparency.
